WESTFIELD – City Hall renovations are on track for fall completion but the move-in date has been pushed back until after the November elections to ensure no mistakes are made in tabulating results.

Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said the $3.4 million restoration project is on schedule as planned, but with the Sept. 24 city preliminary, the Oct. 16 state primary and the Nov. 5 dual election looming, officials suggested the move be postponed until the end of November.

“It will be done the first week of November, but we thought it would be easier to wait until after the elections to make the move,” Knapik said.

City Clerk Karen M. Fanion agreed that waiting to make the move will avoid any potential for error in keeping up to date on all election-related business, including counting absentee ballots and tabulating results. The clerk’s office is now located in a temporary office on the fourth floor of the Westwood building at 94 North Elm St.

“All the computers, equipment and supplies are at Westwood right now,” she said “It’s easier for us to stay here than to have something misplaced or broken right before the elections,” Fanion said. “Even moving a week before the election would be difficult to pull off.”

During the move, she said, computers are down for two days, and those two days and the computers are critical to smooth operations at election time.

“During elections, we need the computers at all times,” Fanion said.

Michael A. DelVecchio, project manager with P3 Project Planning Professionals of Norwell, confirmed that all work is right on schedule with the exterior of the building completed and major interior renovations and mechanical upgrades continuing inside it.

Exterior work included replacing the building’s slate roof, installing new gutters and windows, and repair and repointing of the brick facade.

The building, he said, is utilizing the same energy management system and green energy resources that are now in use at Westfield Vocational Technical High School.

“The heating, cooling and fresh air systems have been installed,” he said Thursday afternoon. “There are going to be a lot of happy, comfortable people with the fresh air coming in.”

In the bowels of City Hall, the building boasts high-efficiency condensing boilers manufactured by Mestek.

New sprinklers and a state-of-the-art fire alarm are also key to protecting the city’s investment in its municipal building.

“This will be a very safe building,” DelVecchio said.

While City Council chambers will remain the same aesthetically and most offices will be located in the same areas, others have been moved to utilize space and accommodate needs, he noted. The personnel and human resources offices have been moved to the former Purchasing Department location, putting the two departments side by side to better serve city employees.

Top of the list for city officials and contractors was keeping the building’s historical integrity intact, a task that is being accomplished by reusing materials. For example, a staircase on floor three-and-a-half was moved to include a wheelchair lift.

When walls were moved, DelVecchio said, wainscoting on the walls was removed and reused in other areas.

“We salvaged the existing wainscoting to use in other areas to keep the aesthetics,” he said.

In mid-May, all city offices relocated from the landmark building to temporary locations in the Westwood Building and offices on Washington Street. The project is considered the first comprehensive repair project for the building, built in the 1800s, in the last 30 years and is being paid for through bonding and $400,000 in Community Preservation Act funds.

Emergency repairs were done in 2011 at a cost of $193,000 to secure the building from water damage. Also, in 2009, the city completed a $32,000 emergency repair to the City Council chambers to replace a ceiling support beam.